Search - life

 
 
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2003

Brinkmanship in Beijing

HONOLULU -- "Surrender means death!" This pretty much sums up North Korea's opening position at the six-nation talks in Beijing this week. U.S. insistence that North Korea dismantle its nuclear program "fully, verifiably, and irreversibly" in advance of dialogue (or rewards) "is little short of demanding...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2003

Asia needs export controls to keep terrorist forces at bay

SINGAPORE -- The recent bomb blast at the J.W. Marriott hotel in downtown Jakarta is only the most recent reminder of the ruthless cruelty of international terrorism. The topic dominates every discussion of Asian security. Those talks have become increasingly sharp in the face of a rising death toll...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 28, 2003

Aging can be a laugh

A teenager is being interviewed for a part-time job.
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2003

Mitsui unit to become part of IRCJ

Mitsui Mining Co. will be granted debt waivers of 170 billion yen and will become a unit of the governmental Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, sources said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2003

The answer is blowing in the wind

Let me be honest from the outset: I'm a serious fan of wind power, and I'd love to see Japan become a world leader in wind-power generation. I'll admit, too, that my reasons are partly selfish.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2003

Face to face with history's Greatest

Histor is wont to bestow epithets on its more colorful characters, from the vertically challenged King Pepin the Short (714?-768), father of Charlemagne, to Ethelred the Unready, who ruled England with singular incompetence from 978 to 1016. Few, however, have so richly deserved their title as Alexander...
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2003

TSE planning online voting system

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will create an online system that will allow domestic and overseas investors to exercise their voting rights in Japanese companies, exchange officials said Monday.
SUMO
Aug 26, 2003

Kaio keeps top spot on east ozeki roost

Kaio, winner of the Nagoya tournament, maintains the top east ozeki position for the second straight time, while yokozuna Asashoryu keeps the top east slot for the third tournament in the Japan Sumo Association's rankings for the upcoming Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament released Monday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 25, 2003

Humanity takes a bite out of Mother Earth

SUNSET BEACH, North Carolina -- Sunset Beach is a summer resort town that appears to have achieved its full-blown status only about a dozen years or so ago, just about the time we started spending our two-week vacation in the beach house of our poet friend Grace Gibson. Photos taken when she built the...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 25, 2003

What has your political party done for you lately?

The Nippon Keidanren is working on a set of guidelines aimed at encouraging member companies to donate to political parties and evaluate their policies. I would like to provide some background on the objectives of this ongoing effort.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 24, 2003

Voices from the past help explain the present

SERVING OUR COUNTRY: Japanese American Women in the Military during World War II, by Brenda L. Moore. Rutgers University Press, 2003, $60 (cloth), $22 (paper). Building on her previous studies of racial issues, gender issues and military sociology, Brenda L. Moore has analyzed and documented an unusual...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 24, 2003

Samurais are in a league of their own

With the launch of the Top League (the new professional league for rugby union in Japan) just three weeks away and the World Cup due to start on Oct. 10, it is easy to forget that there are in fact two codes of rugby.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Daiei units ordered to pay off loans Kyodo News

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered two Fukuoka subsidiaries of struggling retailer Daiei Inc. to repay 1.38 billion yen in overdue loans to a Cayman Islands investment firm.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2003

Falling savings rate is a warning

Until not long ago Japan was criticized -- or praised -- for its extraordinarily high savings rate, depending on how one looked at it. The United States, for one, pointed out that Japan was saving too much and investing too little, and called for steps to stimulate domestic demand and boost consumer...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 23, 2003

A sound bite of married life

On the morning of his son's wedding, Frank Gibbs, the neighborly physician in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," confesses to his wife that his chief concern in the early days of their own marriage was how to make small talk with his bride.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 22, 2003

Bobby Bonds: A lot more than Barry's dad

Too often in life we wait until someone is gone before expressing our admiration for them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Aug 21, 2003

Tracking down the old Tokaido

The old itinerant monk in "Oi," the 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here, is admiring a gushing spring on a forested hillside. Apparently impressed by the joyous flow of water, he is speaking to a local temple apprentice who is pointing away to the right, possibly to another spring nearby....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 20, 2003

Noda gives Kabukiza a 'Mouse' that roars

A modern legend is back at the 114-year-old Kabukiza this summer in the diminutive form of Hideki Noda, one of the titans of Japanese contemporary theater.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2003

Halting the rising suicide trend

The number of suicides in Japan last year exceeded 30,000 for the fifth consecutive year. That's more than three times the number of deaths from traffic accidents. The high incidence of suicide is attributed mainly to the prolonged economic slump. This situation demands efforts in various fields to implement...
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2003

Responsibility to protect against state abuse

KUALA LUMPUR -- The annual Asia-Pacific Roundtable is an invaluable opportunity to take the pulse of Southeast Asian thinking about security issues. This year's meeting, the 17th, featured the usual U.S. bashing -- a predictable response to overwhelming American power and the Bush administration's readiness...
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2003

Rite of assembly

Suddenly, in the middle of New York City -- or Vienna, or Rome, or Tokyo -- a crowd starts to gather, randomly summoned via the Internet. Each person holds a piece of paper, glancing around, watching the others for a signal. Then silently, the crowd galvanizes, coalesces, swarms and -- with no forewarning...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 17, 2003

Combining the best of two worlds

DRAGON BONES, by Lisa See. New York: Random House, 2003, 368 pages, $24.95 (cloth). THE SAMURAI'S DAUGHTER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2003, 304 pages, $24.95 (cloth). It is no coincidence that, besides having Eurasian female authors, both of these books feature female detectives with...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 17, 2003

Black widows striking back

MOSCOW -- Animalistic labels stick to terror. Adolf Hitler's commandos were called werewolves; terrorist cells in Turkey in the 1970s, gray wolves; now the Russian media have christened Chechen female suicide bombers black widows.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 17, 2003

Adding color to pre- and postwar mentalities

During the ceremony to mark the 58th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba blasted the United States for "worshipping nuclear weapons as God" -- a statement that, understandably, received a great deal of media attention. And while U.S. President George Bush, who is advocating...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 16, 2003

If olives be the food of love, then eat on

Todd English is the first to admit that being American and of Italian ancestry makes his family name exceedingly odd. He has no idea where it comes from, but supposes that one day he may try to find out. No chance of this happening in the near future, however. This is a man with more restaurants to open,...
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2003

Failures down 23.7% in July as firms restructure, cut risks

Corporate bankruptcies numbered 1,384 in July, down 23.7 percent year-on-year for the seventh consecutive monthly decline, a private credit-research agency said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

Lost pet? No sweat -- except in the tub

You may think you've got just about everything for your pet -- from brand-name waterproofs and jewelry to its weekly trips to a pet cafe and yoga classes. Now, though, there's a new out-of-this-world accessory for the pet owner with everything: the no-hiding-place collar.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

EDO: City spirit of an era

Whether it's the floating world of ukiyo-e, the stately rites of sumo, the meticulous craft of netsuke, the minimalist art of Japanese gardens or the decorums of the samurai, what we today regard as the traditional values of Japan took shape in what's known as the Edo Period.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 7, 2003

Taking your mate for a ride

Now here's a heartwarming tale for all readers. It involves a partner who provides free transport, free food and, as a nice bonus, unlimited sex. Our story is about an insect, but it starts thousands of years ago.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat